The invention is advantageously applicable to the images received by the front camera of a rotary-wing drone such as a quadcopter. A typical example is the AR.Drone 2.0 or the Bebop by Parrot SA, Paris, France, which are quadcopters equipped with a series of sensors (accelerometers, gyrometers, altimeters), a front video camera that captures an image of the landscape towards which the drone is directed, and a vertical-view camera that captures an image of the terrain over which said drone is flying. The drone is provided with multiple rotors that are each driven by a motor that can be controlled individually in order to control the attitude and speed of the drone.
EP 2 364 757 A1, EP 2 613 213 A1, EP 2 613 214 A1 or EP 2 933 775 (corresponding to US2015/0298822 A1), all in the name of Parrot SA, describe various aspects of these drones.
The front video camera can be used for flying a drone in “immersive mode”, i.e. when the user uses the image from the camera in the same way as they would if they were on board the drone.
Said front video camera may also be used to capture image sequences of a landscape towards which the drone is directed. The user can thus use the drone in the same way as a camera or a video recorder, which, instead of being held in the hand, would be supported by the drone. The images received can be stored and then distributed, uploaded onto video-hosting websites, sent to other internet users, shared on social networks, etc.
Since these images are intended to be stored and shared, it is desirable for them to have as few defects as possible, in particular defects caused by the dynamics of the drone, which may cause oscillations, distortions and other undesired artifacts in the image captured by the camera.
These defects may be acceptable in an “immersive flying” configuration. However, if the drone is used as a mobile video camera for capturing sequences that will be stored and reproduced later, these defects are extremely disruptive, and therefore it is desirable to minimise them.